Posts tagged “Art”

Art has been with me for a long time. I have used art to vent out my frustrations in life. Throughout the years, I have been rejected from my state’s arts commission from doing any project in regards to art business. There are a series of different things that I can do in order to showcase my artwork. My belief is that I am not getting accepted based on not having a college degree or a proven art based business. This seems faulty at best but that is the only conclusion that I can fathom my situation towards.

My 2016 has been filled with issues, dilemmas and situations that I never thought about handling until it was in my face. Throughout the summer season, I gained a good bit of weight that I have not done since I was a kid. It took me looking at a beach photo taken of myself to realize the issue of my weight getting out of hand. I started to figure out a better exercise plan and managed to lose the excess weight. I was determine to have my body in better shape. This decision led itself to me wanting to get into modeling.

I have been told that I should have started modeling out of high school but it was not on my mind at all. I just thought about modeling being for people who are super skinny or super muscular and I never wanted to be that person. I was a bit of a slacker and a loner in many regards. This is typically seen in the gothic, stoner or grunge culture (which I am still apart of). Yes, I am the straightedge punk guy that never tried to fit in but managed to not be anti-social somehow. I think that can be explained due to my love of pro wrestling and The Rock’s promo skills of the early 2000s!

So, I decided to do some test photos of me modeling for social media. I took a few selfies of myself on today for that same reason. My goal in regards to modeling is to model clothes for print via magazines, newspaper and the like. I believe that being creative and inspiring others have morph into me wanting to do other things outside of art itself. Now, I received an e-mail detailing that I need to apply to the South Carolina Arts Commission’s grant that would me to bring an art based business to this state. I plan on doing so because my passion to be in business as well as art is too strong to pass up any opportunity. This is one step that I will take that will lead to other steps in my career. I am growing into being more of an business person daily. Thank you for reading this, I am on Instagram at http://www.instagram.com/andreedwardlevine, my Facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/andreedwardlevine and my Twitter is http://www.twitter.com/andrelevine! Enjoy your day and everyday! God bless and take care! Below are two of the recent selfies but more are at my social media pages:

My name is Andre Levine and I am from South Carolina. My artwork is done in acrylic paint and I have been actively producing art since 2009. I have been approached by many people over the years about my artwork being available for purchase. About one month ago, I was emailed formally by a fashion company out of California called “VIDA” in regards to getting into the fashion industry because they were impressed with my artwork. My mindset on producing artwork over the years was never about making money as it was about showing the world what I can do and produce art wise.

I have never claimed to be the best visual artist in the world. The one thing that I have to can be seen in everything that I do is: passion. Passion for life, passion for love, passion for the pursuit of my dreams and the passion to be creative. Every piece of artwork that I produce has a story behind them. Also, I have been self promoting my artwork since 2009 via social media and through my art blog on WordPress located

VIDA is a fashion company that unites artists, producers of designs and creators of fashion to showcase their passion on everyday. Art is becoming more attainable and a profitable business venture for creative people of all levels. My artwork is displayed on numerous products located at:

http://shopvida.com/collections/andre-levine. My goal is to grow my resume of art, fashion and showcase my passion with everything that I produce with this company. My creativity is limitless as I am always looking to showcase my art, my style and my passion daily. The number of items will increase over time with my artwork being displayed for purchase.

Please take a look at my collection and tell me what you think. You can buy items right now or buy them later. Also, I am asking everyone to share this link no matter if you purchase anything or not. Pass this message on to your friends, family and strangers to help me make my collection reach to a bigger audience.I will try my best to get my name, my collection and my dream of being a fashion designer to the next level. Thank you for reading my story and my progress. Finally, enjoy your day and everyday! Take care everyone!

Thanking you in advance,

Mr. Andre Edward Levine

Also, the following photos are of the designs that readily available for purchase! Click the photo of the item you would like to buy and it will send you directly to the page! Thank you very much for reading and enjoy your day!

http://www.zazzle.com/mbr/238829257143530930 is the direct link to all of the items that I am selling now! The following artworks are what is being sold on various products. If anyone wants these designs or anything I did in the past on other items, message me here or at levineandre@ymail.com. I will do more over time and these items will be available for the foreseeable future! Thanks for looking and remember to #SupportArt and #SupportLocalArt always! God bless and take care!

The passion that I have for life in general is something that can not be touched. My words via poetry or small stories are to excite the casual viewer (reader) into my world of creativity. Creativity is not about hate or misgivings in this world. Everyone can be as creative as they want to be and grow in the world with a new lease on life. I have not created artwork in about 6 months and I plan to produce new artwork (as well as other things) very soon. Taking a hiatus of 6 months or more could hinder a lot of people but not me. I have a new passion on what I want to showcase and produce creativity wise. There was a time years ago that I retired/took an hiatus from doing artwork for 5 years. That sounds absurd to a lot of people but it is not as absurd as you would think.

My process of doing any type of artwork has changed from sketching, doodling and coloring into figuring out what I want to do followed by painting on a blank canvas. There have been various mistakes that have occurred while I was painting due to lack of preparation or fast tracking what I am doing to produce quick artwork. This was a trend for a while until last year when I secretly did artwork without telling anyone what I was doing. Last year my most creative and unique year of doing artwork. The uniqueness about the artwork was that I did artwork that was for myself. It was not influenced by anyone or anything. Getting to that stage of my art career is something that I am proud of because I allowed myself to not be like anyone else.

Now, I have been through the most emotional 6 months of my life. From being carefree about a lot of things to planning out my future business and personal wise. Before my mother passed away, I was planning to sell my artwork personally. I was just in the planning stages of what I wanted to do art wise. Being continuously rejected by my state’s art commission to get a grant of any kind made me think over what I was doing wrong. I figured out that I was not a corporation or a company that did artwork that appeals to the ordinary person that knows nothing about art or the art process. As I was getting ready, tragic struck and I placed my ideas on what I was to do to advance my art career on the back burner.

Artwork and the visual artist that does the artwork are united. The selling of my artwork is something that was going to happen no matter what. My plans to sell my artwork online has not changed. There are one or two ways I will sell my artwork: through http://www.etsy.com or by getting an online store on one of my personal websites. I can confirm that I will sell my old paintings that are 16×20″ acrylic on Cotton Duck canvas by mid-September. Let any and everyone know about this if you believe in my artwork or purchase the artwork when my online store is linked to my art blog and my Twitter profile at: http://www.twitter.com/andrelevine.

My new artwork may not be posted anytime soon. This is because I want to do what I want to do and showcase the results at a later time. I have also been thinking about doing more recorded videos about other things than my artwork. That is a work in progress. Also, my ideas about doing an inspirational app that everyone can use may take years to be available but I have started doing content for that app. Cheers for that as it takes a lot of brain power to plan and figure this out before it is readily available to everyone. I want to thank anyone that has morally supported me at any time in my life no matter what choices that I made. More things will come to me and you are the foundation to what will be my glorious future! Thanks again until next time! God bless!

It’s a new year filled with no ideas and concepts that we want to follow but rarely follow through going towards the end of the year. We are people that want to do many things in different ways without a real passion or motive to move forward out of our comfort zone which tends to make us become lazy outside of our daily routine or tasks. Motivation is key to a brighter future. This concept is not new or old as it is always evolving over time. Motivation is the constant action and reaction to everything that happens on this Earth as well as outer space.

Last year, I managed to do a great deal of artwork without submitting it to any contest or asking anyone how they fe;t about anything that I was doing. It is not that I did not care about the thoughts of my peers but it was that I want to see what I wanted to do art wise. There were many times that I wanted to quit doing artwork entirely. It seemed like it was my sole purpose in life to be accepted for the style of art that I wanted to showcase but no one really cared enough to pay attention to the message that I was sending. The people that I was thinking about is the organizations that fund grants and exhibitions. There is no hiding the fact that I have a pile of rejection letters that would make the mose motivated person want to quit or retire.

This crimpling fact of not being accepted by people that I do not know and do not know me was puzzling and perplexing. My mind was racing to figure out how to be accepted. My heart wanted to not care about the negative and focus on the positive. The problem was that I never received the positive from who I was trying to please. Keep in mind that I was not being rejected by my peers, freinds, family or anyone who had a concept of who I am or what I was doing. There are numerous occasions that I have explained myself into thinking that I should change this up or that up to be commerically noticed. That day will happen but it will not make my heart and passion to be creative happy in the slightest.

No matter what I do: I motivate! From the person that knows me from birth to the average person that asks me for advice on anything that they think I know about; I motivate. My goals in life are my goals. Being selfish in my vocabulary binocular or the ways that “common sense” has taught me to become myself would be very ridiculous for me to do.

So, I did whatever art came to my mind to do on any medium that I wanted to do it on. My poetry side came up once more and continues to do so. Based on my upbring and suburban influences in hip hop culture, I have beatboxed on Instagram on the random occurence. Truth is: I have always had a song, tempo or melody playing in my head. Ask anyone that truly knows me personally. Creativity is something that need to be worked upon and your motivation to partake in your passions to be creative will improve your mindset on a daily basis.

Everyone who has ever lived has been criticized for doing something in their personal or professional lives. We always hear negative comments that cause us to re-evaluate who we are as individuals. Never let anyone or anything stop you from being you at any time. You are unique, special and you have a place in this world to be more than your dreams told you to be. Everyday is a new day to do new things and add to what you are creativity passionate about. Motivate yourself to think outside the “box” that society has placed you in and live out your dreams always! Thanks for reading and take care!

Art is the embodiment of creativity expressed. Notice how I said what I said. Art does not need a label and it does not have a label to be placed in. I challenge you to think about what you did when you were a kid.

How were you creatively expressing yourself on a regular basis? Did you play games with or without people
around? Did you entertain yourself with the toys around you? Did you come up with jokes to entertain yourself
or others? I am proving that you are creative inside of your mind. Expressing yourself on a daily basis is art in itself.

The expressions that I am talking about is the expressions of happiness when you are not happy. The innovations
of the tasks that you complete in a day’s time. Look at the way that you interact with your co-workers and/or your
family members. You are showing your art in all of these moments. Art becomes what you do as it is inside of who
you are. The creation of your body in a womb for close to 9 months of development shows that two people have
created some of the most beautiful or handsome people in existence.

About 2 weeks or more ago, I said that we all need to set aside about 15-20 minutes a day to create. You can
create via artwork or creative writing. I have no been doing much artwork lately but I have been creative writing a
bit in the form of starting to write a book on my lifestyle with fitness included. It is in the beginner stages so bare
with me on when I will be finished. Back on the topic, creating for 15-20 minutes a day will empower your mind as
well as your happiness levels in life.

The various ways that you can create with artwork are by doing the following:
-Doodling: A rough sketch of what is on your mind. It can be done with circles and stick figures to get you started.
-Drawing: A complete pencil sketch with no coloring involved. Try to not spend more than 20 minutes on any piece
of drawing.
-Painting: On a blank canvas, get your paintbrushes and paint whether it is acrylic or oil paint. You can take baby steps to do the painting as this is just the beginning of you becoming creative. Also, you can start on heavy sketch paper or acrylic paper.
-Sculpting: Advanced level of artwork where you draw what you want to create first then mold it into clay. It will be messier than painting but you can learn from mistakes over time as you do with anything else.
-Arts and Crafts: Also advanced level of art making where you can make art out of glass, wood and/or metal. Safety first and be prepared to spend a lot of time creating as well as perfecting this technique.
-Cooking: Cooking is self explantory for most people. The culinary art that allows you to make food, learn from mistakes and become a pretty good chef over time. I do this all the time also. Just look at my Instagram at http://www.instagram.com/andreedwardlevine!

Writing as a means to create involves:
-Brainstorming: Writing out what is on your mind regarding the subject that you want to talk about.
-Rough draft: A completed story with a beginning, middle and end but without editing.
-Read it back to yourself and edit it accordingly as you were taught or are being taught in grade school
-Final draft: Edited version of your story that you do not mind people reading.

These are just a few tips on how to be create to empower your life going forward. Thank you for reading and enjoy your day!

Limits. Limited. Unlimited. Advanced. Certified. Divine. These are all words that we hear over and over for one reason or another. We are creative and art inspired since birth. Retaining creativity is hard as an adult because of the factors of life lead us to not even think about what we want to create. Some of us are crippled by not knowing where to start when it comes to doing artwork in general. One of the reasons that I know that everyone is creative is because of all of our dreams that happen at night. Your dream state and series of dreams allow you to explore ideals that we do not commonly partake in real life.

A constant dream that happens to me is that I keep thinking that I am flying above ground with another spirit that happens to be female. There are also very violent dreams of me either helping someone get away with murder or being killed off myself by some killer or horror movie inspired aspect. It is brilliant creativity both good and bad that drives us in the direction of our daily lives. We are driven and our desires of our personal dreams may lead to creativity in real life in various forms. My focus as of late has been grant funding from a business prospective yet my focus from a physical prospective has been to be deep into fitness.

Fitness for me has been both good and bad. The bad aspect of fitness is common knowledge as it has mostly to do with muscle soreness. The good aspect of fitness is the progress of being more active as well as losing body fat. Various fitness routines that I have done lately have to do with body weight exercises. Yoga has been done in the past but not being able to do a handstand out of Yogi’s pose got to me. So, I learned different way to do a handstand. One way is by falling down into a push-up and standing on my hands while I also started at a sitting position into a cartwheel lately.

I say all of this because creativity has empowered my life to become better than yesterday and to progress daily. There are so many people that look at visual artisans as if they are musicians. One painting is loved for a moment and the next painting is treated as if it is not better than the last. Musicians paint a picture in vocals on their album and hope that it is loved while everyone loves the album while awaiting the next album. It is the same amount of pressure between both artists. This is the reason for most productive artists to constantly develop and produce new displays of creativity with each piece of artwork.

My artwork
I have done a lot of artwork over the past six months. It may be the best artwork of my whole art career so far. The pictures are posted on my various websites and in video form on my YouTube account. The following are various pieces of the artwork that I have done:

I will try to post on this art blog every few months to keep this up to date with the latest in my art career. I hope all of this that I posted has been a pleasure to read. Thanks and take care of yourself!

Well, I have been painting. A few paintings to make the beginning of the year seem better than last year was. Art is a battlefield of dreams and fantasy. It empowers us to do more and become better than the last painting or creative outburst. These latest paintings have been small in scale (9×12″ and 7 1/2x 10″) but big in the feeling it gives out.

This first painting is called “Almost Perfect Kiss” and has the dimensions of 9×12″ displayed on Acrylic paper with Acrylic paint. This is a painting about two lovers who have been through the good and bad of their loving relationship yet they still love each other without any loss of respect. Love is something that every being on the Earth longs for and aspires to have. Love makes us feel alive and we thrive on such a feeling. The funny thing about this painting is that it is a remake of paintings that I have done before with this same concept yet it showcases all of my favorite colors to be grouped together.

Next, the second painting that I did is in the dimensions of 7 1/2×10″ and entitled “For Her!” This is a loving painting of a man giving his lover roses. Roses are one of my favorite flowers to see and showcase in my paintings besides butterflies. Also, red is a passion color and a color of love in general. This is the first watercolor painting that I have done in years so this was special for me to do to see how much better I have become as a visual artist.

Lastly, this second watercolor painting is in the same dimensions as the one above (7 1/2 x 10″). This painting was inspired by teachers love for students. Teachers are the ambassadors of our next generation of thinkers and creative personalities. The background is a black chalkboard with “Welcome Students” as chalk on that board with the apple with a worm being a happy feeling of “preschool greetings.”

These are the latest paintings that I have done and I hope that they are enjoyable to all that sees it! Going to continue to blog about my paintings as this year progresses. Thanks again and take care!

There are many times that I start doing artwork in scribbles as I have done many times as a freehanded
artist. Yesterday was suppose to be no different in regards to painting a picture. There are many things
that I have been doing art wise and creative writing wise. A constant theme for my paintings happen to be
nature and love. There is also a theme of a female and butterflies. Butterflies have appealed to me over the
years as the shining of a new journey of hope and dreams becoming reality.

9×12 Acrylic Paint on Acrylic Paper

This painting that I start was thought of because of a scribbled butterfly was located on the back of my
acrylic pad that I paint on when I am not painting on a Stretched Canvas (which happens to be 16×20 on
most occasions). I started the painting as a blue butterfly and that morphed into a nude female facing
the world in an abstract like form. This female is not completely where she needs to be as she is finding
her truth. Her truth will only be seen when she exposes her heart to the world. The world in this case is
not the physical world that we know and love. This world is inside of her mind. She has the key to knowing
her truth, showing others her love and seeking what the world has to offer her. We are all seeking our truth.
“Our Truth” by Lacona Coil happens to be one of my favorite songs of all time. Seeking life and truth of your
own life is the plight of humankind.

This will be the start of my artwork going forward. Last year, I slowed down so that I can take different avenues
and ventures. The direction of my artwork will remain being abstract in nature but the business side of this avenue of interest has changed for me. I was going to get an eBay account and sell all of my paintings singularly. Now, I will sell my paintings in prints as there are reoccurring themes in my paintings that tell stories. My art goal will be to sell these prints by the end of the year. There are other things I need to do business wise outside of art but I will focus on my artwork no matter what the outcome is from anything else. Becoming the next Pablo Picasso has been my goal in being creative and I am striving to become that over time. This is a new start that I hope that everyone will be with me on morally and business wise. Going to make a goal of posting more this year also. Thank you for reading and take care!

The sum of things in the past few months have been learning experiences to say the least. Verbally and theoretically, I have pretty much been a man of words and actions. You can say that I have taken a bit of chances that I may not have done in the past. It seems that the person I am is private so it is hard to convey that into the open minded behavior that is in the art world. No matter the situation I have been put in so far in this life; I rise to the occassion. Being the person I am and the way I have handled life is amazing to see (as I have been told.)

Losing a job about 2-3 years ago allowed me free time to do what I felt that I needed to do. Up until the day I lost that job, I was a workaholic that did not know how to stop being that way. It might have been constructive if I was a workaholic that actually did something I love but that was far from the fact. I was always told by my elders; “Something is better than nothing!” To put it mildly and not to scare people that do not know me…..I was a wreck of a person that got no sleep and was on the verge of self destruction. My whole family so that coming. I save a great deal of money so I would be okay. After that, I started doing “odd jobs” and actually make more money that way but that is not what I am getting at.

The time away from the steady job market allowed me to do artwork. I did sketches as a kid and pen drawings in college but nothing concrete at all. In unison with this, I started this art blog, got on Facebook and Twitter. Privately, I am a long conversation person as I will be on the phone for hours with the people that really know me. Now, this is where the story gets a bit weird. My best friend at the time asked me to go to Flordia with him on the spur of the moment. I did and everything that could go wrong went wrong. My money paid for the following: gas, hotel and food. The car shut down 3 miles from the hotel we were suppose to stay at.

I stayed in high spirits and we got a ride to the hotel in Orlando, Florida by the street sweeper. Somehow was we approached the hotel, he says “Why don’t we stay here for a while?” To say that I was shocked is an understatement. We got to the hotel, paid for the room and stayed up all night. We were in Florida because he wanted to try out for American Idol. The next day, he tried out but I was too tired to wait for his turn. This female that I did not know was bothering me with her feet of all things. I love females but this girl was weird. After this, I left the Colosseum and got lost trying to find the hotel. It took me at least 5 circle around the Colosseum area to finally see the hotel.

So, I took a shower and fell into sleep. He was back when I woke up and he was disappointed. We left the hotel and tried to walk to the nearest Greyhound. The map on Google maps said that it was about 5 miles. We proceeded to walk over 5 miles in the wrong direction. The next local bus came by and took us to the nearest bus depot where I met a female that I was going to flirt with but it was no use as I was leaving. If I had a video camera at that time, you would be able to see the lustful stares we gave each other. That friend never was a friend after that trip for various other reasons. I felt as though I needed to go on another trip……so I did. I went to New Jersey to stay about 2 weeks but ended up staying for at least a month! New Jersey is my birthplace and second home. Art filled my brain after being to these places so I went from painting on paper with acrylic paint to acrylic paint on 16×20 canvases. Three months after this, I started using 16×20 Stretched Canvases that are Cotton Duck fabric with a wooden frame on 4 sides.

Showing my artwork with others gave me joy and I get a dislike every so often. I decided on applying to get an Art Fellowship last year and got an rejection letter. I did so again this year and got another rejection letter. This sounds dishearting in a way but it is not. My love of art started as a kid and no rejection letter from anyone will change that fact. The last rejection letter I got was via website and not formal at all. This was a rejection letter from the City of Charleston Cultural Arts for an exhibition at an arts festival. My goal art wise was to get my artwork into galleries.

My art collection are neatly kept in 4 big boxes, sprayed with acrylic sealer and looks the same way when I finished painting it. The way I will sell these paintings are not like most as I just want to sell them with money order and debit card. Credit card is an option but I have to do more research on that. I am open to commission work at any time but keep those payment option in mind. The good thing about what has happened recently is that my friends and family believe in me more than I thought. A starving visual artist I may be but the road to what I need to become will be legendary.

I say that I am the next Picasso and that is not because I think that I am the best visual artist there ever was as I know I have as much passion for art as Pablo Picasso did. I say all of this because I lost friends as I stated in one situation, I have been rejected many times by the art community of paneled judges but I still have passion to create and be creative in everything that I do. You can not enjoy success without going through the struggle to get there. This is not just a story and this is not just words as this is a statement of truth with my own tongue. Keep pursuing your passions in life as I know that I will. Take care all of you and thank you for reading!